Hair systems must be attached somehow to your scalp so that they stay on. Every type of attachment (glues, clips, weaves) kill off your hair by producing traction alopecia. This is why men who start using a hair system, rarely ever get off of it. Add to that is that they are not cheep. They often run more than a good hair transplant does.
23M and am pretty happy with my hair right now and am currently on min(2x a day)+dut(3x week) and fin(4x week). But based on my family history it looks like I have a similar pattern as my pap and will be nw7 by 50/60 and probably an nw4 by 30-40. While I would be completely devastated and depressed to lose my hair right now i know baldness is my inevitable fate and I want to try and gradually shift how much importance I place on my hair. Right now I constantly obsess over it and am frequently checking this subreddit to an almost unhealthy extent. It is understandable to care a lot more right now in my early 20s, but what are some steps that you guys have taken to come to peace and acceptance with hairloss? I will continue to treat it but I want to stop being so damn obsessed with it
Ask your Dad at what age he started balding. Most Class 7 pattern men start in their early 20s so maybe you will not follow his pattern. Age related onset is also inherited but I have seen this happen when it would be inconsistent with inherited timing: See here: https://baldingblog.com/need-master-plan-think-hair-transplants-photos/
At 23, generally you should first try drugs like minoxidil and finasteride for a year. I have seen reversal with this drugs in men of your age. You can add microneedling as well to increase the probability of getting your hair back. If you don’t respond to the drugs, then a hair transplant may be proper depending upon many factors that you and your surgeon will work out. Depending upon your hair thickness and donor density in conjunction with your end balding pattern, decisions can be make properly. Make sure that you get a Personalized Master Plan from your doctor and an estimate of your worst case balding pattern before you get a hair transplant
This man found that his surgeon used 3-4 hair grafts for the beard. It is clear that there is a texture difference between his normal beard and the transplanted beard as well as skin deformities. I wonder if it would be worth while removing each graft that has multiple hairs and corbelling and replace them with beard hair from under the chin. You can have a test area done and see if it solves the problem to your satisfaction before rushing into a large surgical procedure. Then, after 6 months or so, it the test area approach works, you can replace your entire beard transplant as with the test site ?
This is something that the ordinary person can expect for minoxidil in growing some hair in the crown area.
Can you explain more in detail the actual mechanism of MPB? I know that some hair follicles are sensitive to DHT and somehow the DHT causes miniaturization, but how does this actually work? Also, any wisdom on why some hairs develop later in life even where there were no (or not visible?) follicles. Like pubic hair and hairs on the chest and back as men age?
I am not going to write a book to answer your question but here is a quick summary: People who have the genes for hair loss, when exposed to DHT (normal for men to have this) trigger the process called Apoptosis (the progression of cell death) for hair follicles carrying the genes. DHT works directly on the growth center in the impacted hairs. Drugs like finasteride or dutasteride block this process so it slows down the effects of the DHT and the balding that occurs.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26904154/. I didn’t have access to the entire article, but the abstract was interesting for me to read.
Cleopatra’s cure for balding consisted of scorched crushed mice paste and crushed horses teeth, deer marrow, reed bark, and honey massaged into the scalp. Has anyone tried it? We have been looking for a cure for balding for a long, long time.
You should not easily pull out normal hairs, but miniaturized hairs easily come out. For people with Telogen Effluvium (mostly women) we call this a ‘Pull Test’ where the number of hairs that come out are quantified.
Been on Min (and Fin) for 7 months and have made some nice progress and got my hair to grow back on the crown and temples, but if I shave, is that like pressing the “restart” button? Do I have to wait another 7 months to gain what I have back?
No, shaving your head will not cause hair loss; however, miniaturized hairs which are not growing well, may not be growing when you let your hair grow back.
It is likely that you have alopecia areata. Take a look at this reference: https://baldingblog.com/how-does-a-dermatologist-check-for-miniaturization/ which shows the in-office examination results from using a trichoscope for the evaluation and diagnosis of this condition. This patient shows the classic critical diagnostic finding with a trichoscope or exclamation mark hairs
There is nothing as good as keeping to a plan daily to get great results like this result.
In regards of sides, long time safety, price, practical usage what are the arguments for each method. Also is it possible to make the topical version at home. I’d highly appreciate objective arguments at with some literature for evidence, but of course own experience with trying out these methods.
Oral is better if you don’t get side effects because it addresses the miniaturization that you can’t see in parts of your scalp where you may have already started balding. The topical only works where you put it and spreading it all over your scalp, doesn’t make sense if the pill can do it a a fraction of the cost without the nuisance of daily applications which are time consuming
This is a patient that had a hair transplant by a non-physician and got necrosis of the recipient area where all of the hair will not grow there and it is heavily scarred as you can see.
When you continue to shed on finasteride, it probably means that the genetic hair loss has increased its rate of loss. Stopping the finasteride will probably cause more rapid loss so I doubt that it is the finasteride that is causing the shedding